The interviewer;
As a half-Indian, half-Pakistani with a strong connection to this country, I have observed the gulf between what it means to be British Pakistani and British Indian. To be Indian is to come from a safe, ancient country and, more recently, from an emerging power. In contrast, to be Pakistani is to begin with a depleted idea of nationhood. In the 55 years that Pakistan has been a country, it has been a dangerous, violent place, defined by hatred of the other–India.
For young British Muslims, if Pakistan was not the place to look for an identity, being second-generation British was still less inspiring. While their parents were pioneers, leaving Pakistan in search of economic opportunities, enduring the initial challenges of a strange land, the second generation’s experience has been one of drudgery and confusion. Mohammad, who owns a convenience store on Stratford Street in Beeston and who knew all the local bombers, says, “They were born and raised here, we did the work… and these kids grew up and they haven’t had a day’s worry. They’re bored, they don’t do any work, they have no sense of honour or belonging.”
Britishness is the most nominal aspect of identity to many young British Pakistanis. The thinking in Britain’s political class has at last begun to move on this front, but when our tube bombers were growing up, any notion that an idea of Britishness should be imposed on minorities was seen as offensive. Britons themselves were having a hard time believing in Britishness. If you denigrate your own culture you face the risk of your newer arrivals looking for one elsewhere. So far afield in this case, that for many second-generation British Pakistanis, the desert culture of the Arabs held more appeal than either British or subcontinental culture. Three times removed from a durable sense of identity, the energised extra-national worldview of radical Islam became one available identity for second-generation Pakistanis. The few who took it did so with the convert’s zeal: plus Arabe que les Arabes.
The interviewee;
There is a speech by the Prophet in which he says: Allah gave me five things. One of them was the power to strike fear, to strike terror into the heart of the enemy from a mile’s distance, and this was a reference to a battle he had commenced. The way the warriors had prepared themselves was so terrifying that the enemy didn’t even turn up to the battle. Besides that, in the Koran the word irhab is the root word for terror in Islam, and irhabiyun is the word for terrorist. Allah mentions the word in the Koran many times–the one who strikes terror into their hearts is an irhabiyun. If I could have that title Islamically then I would be more than happy to take it and be proud of it. But unfortunately, I haven’t reached that level yet.
Required reading – in the British magazine, Prospect.
Update – Timely context for Tony Blair’s toughening stance.
that in a nutshell is why I don’t go to folklorama in winnipeg.
What kind of a loser country promotes everything from elsewhere without ever saying it’s good to be Canadian.
Kauckistan
Mohammed made a very salient point. The first generation from Pakistan worked very hard to assimilate and build their businesses and lives while providing everything for the next generation so they didn’t have to struggle and work hard to make ends meet. The younger generation gets bored because they don’t want to work and turn to drugs and crime and then one day while visiting the mosque or madrassa they suddenly find their true ” Purpose”. Wipe out the world of the evil infidel in the name of Allah. They are being let down by two distinct groups. The parents who love their children so much that they suffer to give the next generation everything at any cost, and thier spiritual leaders who hate the west so much that they brainwash these young muslims to commit violent acts in the name of God. Both need to revisit their ideology.
What the hell do I know? I’m just an American who tends to simplify things so I can understand them.
Aside from giving psychologists a lot of fodder to analize, this individual is a waste of air. There is nothing us infidels can do to appease this nutbar other than to cease to exist. But then, people like him would find something else to crusade for.
I’d feel more remorse at shooting Kate’s gopher with my duly registered .22 than I would offing this bag of sh*t.
I do like the point though that Britian’s attempt at multiculturalism rather than the ‘melting pot’ was and is a total failure. Canada, please take note.
Meanwhile:
“The focus of newspaper coverage in the coming days may abruptly shift from ‘poor helpless Marines from Ohio’ to ‘we’re slaughtering them! We’re killers!’ These are the hard choices of war, and as Hemingway once wrote “all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.”
>> Belmont Club by Wretchard.
Go Marines. Thanks to George Bush, POTUS.
Norman Spector’s daily press review, “Norman’s Spectator” (http://www.members.shaw.ca/nspector4/) is a very useful site, and a good indicator of how a mainstream moderate views things.
I was disappointed indeed to see that his choice today for “THE COLUMN I WISH I�D WRITTEN” is this piece of moral equivalency rot from the Guardian, by Peter Wilby: “The responsibility we share for Islamist shock and awe: Citizens in democracies will be held to account for what is done in their name”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1542996,00.html
An excerpt:
“…Muslims fight us on their own soil, but why should they not carry the fight to our homelands as we carry it to theirs?…Most importantly, Muslim warriors may think, bombing western civilians gets results: the things that make it horrible to us make it more effective in their eyes (shock and awe, perhaps) and if there are enough such outrages, we will demand a retreat from Iraq. They may be wrong on this. But it is the price we pay for living in a democracy: theoretically, we are in charge so we are frontline targets…”
Where to begin?
1) “We” are carrying on the fight in very few of the many Muslim countries. If Muslims everywhere are justified in responding, indeed murderously, then their prime loyalty must be to Islam, not to their citizenship.
2) “Muslim warriors”: so those blowing up themselves and many innocents in tubes and buses are warriors? Please.
3) “we are in charge so we are frontline targets”: so no more rules of war, just utter barbarism.
The most insidious thing in all this is Wilby’s acceptance of people acting as “Muslims” against “us”. If they are justified in so acting, then “we” would be equally justified in our countries to profile, and act against, Muslims generally.
I do not think Mr Spector would support that.
Mark
Ottawa
About a year ago, I arrived at my place of work, (after a very unpleasant incident on the TTC involving a ‘New Canadian’- assuming of course that this……person……was in this country Legally to begin with.)
I discover that a glue-pump is about to fail on one of the lines, and there are no rebuilt spares, so I get one, and start prying it apart, ( it’s glued together, Stupid).) And while I am doing this, an Indian co-worker comes over to my bench, and throws a brand-new adjustable square onto my steel workbench, and he sez: “Here- I borrowed this while you were not here- your tool box was open.” (I am not impressed, but I said nothing.)
He then comes back, sez: ” I need that tool again.” And this time, he drops it on the concrete floor while adjusting it!?!
I very gently and calmly sez: “I gotta show you something.” And I drew another identical tool from my toolbox and showed it to him. “This here tool, is identical to the one you are holding in your hands. Do you see the melted paint and aluminium on this here tool- This was done by another co-worker in this disgusting rat-hole.”
He asked in reply: “How much did that tool cost?”
I replied: “Twenty-seven bucks plus taxes.”
He then said: “Holy fuck!”- threw the tool back on my workbench, and walked away!?!
Now: Where I was trained to be a tradesman,(Britain- I was their token Canuck- I was taught that you do not take another man’s tool without asking for it, (unless you have a prior understanding.) And if you then disrespect that tool, you are disrespecting the man who owns it.
Bye the time that coffeebreak rolls around, I went outside to the smokeshack, (not allowed to smoke in the plant), I am sitting at a table, having a chat with some of my female co-workers in that plant, and this African dude comes in, stops in front of the table, sticks his hand in front of my face, and snaps his fingers a couple of times!?! I made eye-contact with him, and asked him what he wanted? (He continued to snap his fingers while pointing to my pack of cigarrettes on the table!?!)
So, I sez: “Howjalikemetotearyourfuckingfaceoffand spit down your throat?” He split, and everybody in the room freaked out!
I went back inna plant, and was getting another cup of coffee from the machine, when this dipshit comes overand mumbles something to the effect that he is sorry if he offended me?
I answered: “This is not the first time that you and I have been through this kind of situation, and I am not dumb to the fact that there were other workers-women- present on that occasion. I thought I had made myself quite clear at that time?
“Blablabla.”
Spare me that shit! Effective right now- you got one foot in a plastic garbage bag. Wanna try for two?”
“Blablabla.”
“The garbage bag that I am referring to-here- is made by Dow Chemical, and has a zipper on it-kapeech?”
“Blablabla.” (Dosen’t get it. Does not even have the braincells to process it.)
The next morning, I finished my shift, quit my job, went home.
On ‘multiculturalism’: My ‘culture’ works just fine for me. I got my limits on what I am prepared to tolerate otherwise. Disregard My standards of behaviour at your own risk.
One major problem with visible minority immigrants I find is that they spoil their children rotten. Their is no corresponding tradition in many of the Western European peoples even when they are quite wealthy and successful.
Funny but the article only hints at this and doesn’t explore it in more depth.
Kate, I’m rather speechless. I’m going to use this link for my blog as his attitude is way more global than just a U.K phenomena. Ontario is just like the U.K.
I want to make a point as I see Butt or Budd or whatever his name is(the main character in this article)isn’t that different than white supremacists.
FYI the Muslim community I left believed that Isreaeli’s flew the planes into the WTC towers, (not Muslims). That same conspiracy about the Israeli theory adorns the odd (or more) white supremacist websites. But I’ll touch on that in later posts
Norman Spector made a good choice today in “THE COLUMN I WISH I�D WRITTEN” with Salim Mansur: “Clerics must own up to poisonous preaching”:
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mansur_Salim/2005/08/06/1161334.html
Mark
Ottawa
Blaming Islam for terrorism is like blaming Christianity for Jim Jones and David Koresch. There are at least as many instances of violence in the Bible as there are in the Qur’ an. All religions favor a violent past. The New Testement in the Bible makes attonement for the violence in the Old Testement, while most holy leaders, or Imams, today are making that atonement themselves. They are starting to interpret things in the Koran, like the idea of “fighting” in a different way than warfare. Only the extemists still believe that “global cleansing” is the answer, much like the KKKs’ beliefs………
The term JIHAD has also been claimed, mostly by MSM to mean “Holy War”, which is not entirely true…..
taken from http://www.islamfortoday.com/jihad01.htm
� The Arabic word Jihad is often translated as holy war, but a more accurate translation is holy struggle. Islamic scholars say the term holy war was actually coined in Europe during the Crusades to mean a war against the Muslims.
� In a purely linguistic sense, the word Jihad means struggling or striving. There are two different, unrelated words which mean war.
� In a religious sense, as described by the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed, Jihad means striving for the benefit of the community or the restraint of personal sins. It can refer to internal as well as external efforts to be a good Muslim, or believer. Scholars say it primarily refers to efforts to improve oneself.
� Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions. It is worth noting that the Koran specifically refers to Jews and Christians as “people of the book” who should be protected and respected. All three faiths worship the same God. Allah is just the Arabic word for God, and is used by Christian Arabs as well as Muslims.